Turkey and China are helping Iran to evade UN sanctions by providing them with secret banking facilities to purchase goods, according to Western security officials.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Photo: REUTERS
By Con Coughlin
8:00PM GMT 19 Feb 2012
In an attempt to escape the effects of the wide-ranging sanctions imposed over Iran’s illegal nuclear programme, Iran’s central bank is using a number of financial institutions in China and Turkey to fund the purchase of vital goods to keep the Iranian economy afloat.
According to Western security officials China, which is Iran’s largest oil trading partner, is playing a major role in helping Iran to avoid the sanctions.
Instead of transferring payments to Iran owed from oil purchases, Chinese banks are using the money to buy goods on behalf of the Iranians and then shipping them to Iran.
“It is like an old-fashioned barter mechanism,” explained a senior security official. “The money Iran earns from oil sales goes into banks in China and is then used for Iranian purchases of other goods and materials. It is a very good way of getting round the sanctions.” Security officials have also identified a number of financial institutions in Turkey that are helping Iran to evade sanctions.
Turkey, which maintains good diplomatic relations with Tehran, is particularly useful to Tehran because of its close trading ties with Europe.
Investigators claim they have found evidence of Turkish businesses trying to purchase financial institutions in Europe on behalf of Iran which can then be used by Tehran to purchase much-needed goods and materials for its stricken economy.
According to security officials responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the sanctions, the sanctions-busting operation is being masterminded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who are said to own more than 50 percent of the Iranian economy.
They are taking an increasingly influential role in the running of the Central Bank of Iran, which is itself the subject of international sanctions. “Today the Central Bank of Iran is being run like an intelligence operation,” said one investigator.
Iran is particularly keen to have access to banks in Germany, which is one of the world’s leading handlers of euros. U.S. Treasury department officials have identified a number of transactions passing through German banks that appear to have come from Turkey, but in fact are being controlled by Tehran. In addition to the eurozone Iran is also trying to transfer funds through Ukraine and Belorussia.
The visit takes place amid warnings from diplomats based in Vienna, the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear programme to an underground site near the city of Qom, enabling it to speed up the production of enriched uranium, a vital component for nuclear weapons.
Reports said Tehran has put finishing touches for the installation of thousands of new-generation centrifuges at the facility – machines that can produce enriched uranium much more quickly and efficiently than its present machines.
via Turkey and China ‘helping Iran evade UN sanctions’ – Telegraph.
THE VIDEO EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE, BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS… THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK, JAMES WOLFENSOHN, MAKES STUNNING CONFESSIONS AS HE ADDRESSES GRADUATE STUDENTS AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY. HE REVEALS THE INSIDE HAND OF WORLD DOMINATION FROM PAST, TO THE PRESENT AND INTO THE FUTURE. THE SPEECH WAS MAS MADE JANUARY 11TH, 2010. THE NEXT 19 MINUTES MAY OPEN YOUR MIND TO A VERY DELIBERATE WORLD.
HE TELLS THE GRAD STUDENTS WHAT’S COMING, A “TECTONIC SHIFT” IN WEALTH FROM THE WEST TO THE EAST. BUT HE DOESN’T TELL THE STUDENTS THAT IT IS HIS INSTITUTION, THE WORLD BANK, THAT’S DIRECTING AND CHANNELING THESE CHANGES.
WOLFENSOHN’S OWN INVESTMENT FIRM IS IN CHINA, POISED TO PROFIT FROM THIS “IMMINENT SHIFT” IN GLOBAL WEALTH.
A policeman stand guard near the European Union Delegation in Beijing in November 2011. China has no intention to "buy out Europe", a top state-run newspaper said Monday, reiterating comments made by Premier Wen Jiabao ahead of a major summit with the European Union in Beijing.
AFP – China has no intention to “buy out Europe”, a top state-run newspaper said Monday, reiterating comments made by Premier Wen Jiabao ahead of a major summit with the European Union in Beijing.
The Chinese government has in recent weeks sought to calm concerns in Europe that a wave of investment by Chinese companies and government-backed funds will give Beijing too much influence over struggling European economies.
“China not only does not have the appetite or ability to ‘buy out Europe’ or ‘control Europe’ like some in Europe have said, but also supports the euro and European Union from start to finish,” the People’s Daily said.
The commentary in the overseas edition of the Communist Party mouthpiece also reiterated comments made by Wen earlier this month that China was mulling helping out in the European debt crisis, through the International Monetary Fund or bailout funds.
“For many years, the European Union has been China’s biggest export market and largest source of technology, as well as a major provider of foreign investment,” it said.
“This is the main consideration behind what Premier Wen said — that ‘helping Europe is actually helping China itself’.”
The comment piece comes a day ahead of a major EU-China summit that takes place against a backdrop of concern over the eurozone crisis, which has seen a wave of credit-rating downgrades and brought Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will attend the summit in Beijing on Tuesday, as will Wen.
European leaders have previously called on China, which has the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, to invest in a bailout fund to rescue debt-stricken countries.
China has so far made no firm commitment to provide financial assistance, other than Wen’s comments made during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit and reiterated in the People’s Daily on Monday.
But Chinese companies and funds have ramped up their investment in Europe, buying up utilities, energy firms and even luxury yacht makers, in a move welcomed by some but eyed with concern by others.
Analysts say bargain-hunting — and not the secret hand of Beijing — is driving the recent wave of acquisitions as Chinese firms seek to expand abroad and the country’s sovereign wealth fund diversifies away from US bonds.
On 4 February 2012, the media organizations of the War Party unanimously announced more than 200 deaths in Homs – a city “bleeding” -, the torture of children and “relentless” bombing. We are supposed to be witnessing the “most terrifying massacre” since the beginning of the “revolt“. Spontaneously, attacks were triggered during the night against the Syrian embassies in Washington, Cairo, Kuwait and London.
In fact, to increase pressure on the UN Security Council and public opinion, the imperial communication apparatus has resumed services after a brief lull.
The advocates of intervention in Syria made a mistake by sending an observer mission. The 160 observers from the 22 Arab League countries were able to establish the discrepancy between the version of events put forward by the West and the reality on the ground. For this reason, their report was smothered by the Presidency of the Arab League, and has not been presented to the Security Council, when it was supposed to constitute the very basis for the new deliberations on Syria.
The problem is that the report would bring to light several points wholly at variance with the current Atlanticist version, when the laws of war propaganda aim to silence all dissenting voices in order to impose its own views.
Since they refuse to endorse NATO’s storytelling, the observers have become embarrassing witnesses. Although the extension of their mission had received 4 votes in favor and 1 against (that of Qatar) by the Ad HocMinisterial Committee of the Arab League, they must leave Syria due to “security” reasons, after the Gulf observers were called back and Saudi Arabia issued a call from Al-sheik Aroor for their assassination.
Although he is depicted as a radical Muslim, Sheik Adnan Al Aroor is a former Syrian officer arrested and sentenced to 70 years for raping several conscripts under his command. Exiled in Saudi Arabia, he created his own sect and became one of the leading Takfirist preachers, the guru of the insurgents.
Now that Syria is again the only one in a position to provide another version of events, the lie industry set up for this operation is back in full gear. Once again the sole source recognized by the West and the Gulf is the self-proclaimed Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, based in London and led by the Muslim Brotherhood. No evidence is submitted; a few blurred photos, the juxtaposition of images showing demonstrations and explosions, and some anonymous testimonials will do: the “information” is instantly relayed, with no verification, by hundreds of media across the world.
While they are accused of defending cynical interests, the Russians and Chinese are essentially the last members of the Security Council to elevate the facts above communication strategies and international law above the lies.
Obama claims “a world once divided [on Iran]. . .now stands as one” and that Iran is “isolated”. Is it Iran or the US & Israel who are “isolated”?
by Joshua Blakeney
Press TV: US president Barack Obama has asserted the country’s ironclad commitment to Israel’s security; while repeatedly threatening Iran with what he calls ‘all options on the table’.
Obama once again renewed US threats against Iran during his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 24, saying that Washington will maintain pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
“America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” the US president said.
Iran has categorically refuted the US-led allegations regarding its nuclear program, insisting that the country’s nuclear program is only intended for peaceful civilian purposes.
Joshua Blakeney, staff writer from Veterans Today; joins Press TV to share his opinions on the issue of the US president’s State of the Union Speech.
What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Joshua Blakeney thank you so much for joining us. Let us go directly to the first question which starts with what the US president in the State of the Union address said and is it really a disinformation and that is that, Iran is on the path of acquiring a nuclear weapon?
Blakeney: Yes, it was a quite myopic speech, coming from the president of the United States. I mean, I found it particularly telling that he made the statement that “the world was once divided and”, thanks to him, “the world is now united on the question of Iran.”
I am having some feedback, I apologize. But the reality is of course that the Non-Aligned Movement – which is consisted of a 120 nations – issued a statement just eight days ago in which they endorsed Iranian sovereignty and expressed their hostility towards the US encroaching on Iranian sovereignty.
And therefore that was one utterance from the President of the United States that was evidently false.
Obama forgot to mention in his State of the Union address that the 120 members of the Non-Aligned-Movement support Iranian sovereignty and denounce US-Israeli hostility towards Iran
Obviously the insinuation that Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons is buttressed by no evidence and of course the IAEA, [International Atomic Energy Agency], any statements they have made in which they have indirectly implied this, has been inferred from evidence, so called, provided to them by itsmember states like the United States and Israel and Britain and therefore their statements are not reliable at all.
Iran clearly is trying to develop a civilian nuclear program, like France has; like many countries in the world have; which is completely justifiable and indeed legal.
And so the president of the United States I think reflected not necessarily his own perspective but those of his backers. You know, the United States political system is one where money speaks; in a capitalist system those who own capital have political clout.
And the statements that Barack Obama made vis-à-vis the Middle East, and really in general to do with domestic economics also, I believe, were the product of his backers.
And we know who is supporting the Democrat Party financially and what their agenda is in terms of Middle East policy.
And that in my humble opinion is to promote the interest of the state of Israel, often in fact jeopardizing traditional US-Middle East policy which was to try and do bilateral negotiations within ensconced Middle East regimes. And therefore this speech has to go down as an embarrassment.
And in fact if you look, if you go to about an hour, into Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in about an hour into it, you will see that when he mentions Iran and when he mentions his ironclad support for the State of Israel, that actually only about half of the Congress persons clapped which might indicate that there is some discontent with this tendentious policy of the United States towards the State of Israel.
Press TV: Joshua Blakeney, this all options on the table is something again perhaps, maybe because of a reelection year for Obama maybe its a signal and some say for the Israeli lobby at the same time the great length that the United States is going to get sanctions on Iran.
We know that they have made and introduced the sanctions, trying to get EU [European Union] which they got their approval even though it’s at the behest of Europe in terms of what they are going through regarding the Euro zone crisis, of course going with his co-worker [US Secretary of the Treasury] Timothy Geithner all the way to China and we saw what happened there regarding getting China on board and of course then with India.
I mean what is it that the US president means with this ‘all options on the table’?
Blakeney: Well, I think it is largely empty rhetoric from the President of the United States and I think there is a tendency among the political class to think if they repeat something as many times as possible that it would begin to be true.
And Barrack Obama said in his State of the Union address that the world is now united against Iran and that is patently false, is Venezuela against Iran? Is China against Iran? Is the Non-Aligned Movement of 120 nations against Iran?
I do not think so, so we are seeing the decline of Anglo-America and this kind of Euro- American imperialist world that the planet has been victim of for the past 500 years really since 1492 and we are living in a multipolar world now, one where Iran has some agency.
China and Iran continue to trade with each other irrespective of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and E.U.
And if the European Union and the United States wants to work in Israel’s interests and against its own interests of doing commercial dealings with Iran, then Iran will go elsewhere and trade its resources and goods with other nations which I think is a good thing. I think it is good that we are living in a multipolar world.
One of the intellectuals authors of the “war on terror” was an individual named Charles Krauthammer, who in 1990 authored a paper entitled The Unipolar Moment, in which he said, oh this moment after the Soviet Union has declined US must jumped on it, because it won’t be there for ever.
And that unipolar moment, you know, metastasized into the invasion of Iraq and the invasion of Afghanistan. But I believe that actually they cannot invade and attack Iran because they are bereft of soldiers for a start; they’re overstretched militarily, the United States, and moreover Iran has a capability to defend itself. Press TV: So what is it [the US] trying to do there when it keeps saying it Joshua Blakeney, I mean, some say well it is a distraction from the problems that he [Obama] is facing at home. And I am talking about the Occupy movement, do you agree with that?
Joshua Blakeney and Mark Glenn critically analyze Barak Obama’s State of the Union speech on Press TV.
Iran is on the right side of history contributing to the success of the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America. Iran and many nations in Latin America are at the forefront of the resistance to the international imperialism of the US, Britain and Israel
Blakeney: Yes, to an extent. You know it offers a scapegoat, a smokescreen to distract people. So I do agree to a large extent with what my colleague said.
You know the fact of the matter is that US politicians need to pander and Kowtow to the Israel lobby in the United States.
JJ Goldberg did a study in the 1990′s in which he deduced that 45% of Democrat party donations came from individuals who are partisan to the State of Israel.
And in 2006 Richard Cohen did a study in the Washington Post, in which he indicated 60% of the Democrat Party [money] comes from individuals whose primary allegiance is to the state of Israel.
So if 60% of the Barack Obama’s money is coming from individuals whose first priority is Israel, is it very surprising that Barack Obama would have this so called ‘ironclad’ consensus with the state of Israel?
I think that this is historically precedented, if you look in 1965 for example, when the British empire was trying to extend self determination and self rule to the inhabitants of the Rhodesia, the natives of Rhodesia, we saw the local crazed ethnic nationalists form a schism in the British empire and rise up and declare independence likewise the US after the Cold War had no use for Israel anymore.
The divergence between a rational U.S. Middle East policy and the Israeli Middle East policy of denying Arabs and Muslims cohesion and stability is analogous with the divergence of interests between the declining British Empire and regional Rhodesian white ethnic nationalists in 1965 (as portrayed from 5 mins 52 seconds in the above video). ]
After 1967 Israel proved itself to be a formidable fighting force and within the context of the Cold War the United States could use Israel to smash up this or that Arab nation or to extend its Middle East policy.
After the Cold War what use did the US have for Israel or for South Africa? In the case of South Africa, the Afrikaners did not have a lobby in the United States and so the US cast them adrift in the 1980′s and the VETO they provided them in the United Nations dissipated.
Unfortunately, what would have been logical and rational from the perspective of US hegemony who would obviously want to win over Middle East governments to resist the hegemony of the …..
Press TV: Joshua Blakeney, the US president said that this is the right time for the United States to be on the right side of the Middle East.
Is the US on the right side of the Middle East? Quickly [we have] twenty seconds or less.
Blakeney: No, it is definitely not. In the 1980s the Israeli government formulated a new policy of wanting to destabilize the Middle East which goes against US oil interests, against the US rational interests as a global hegemon.
What can you accomplish in 360 hours?
The Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group, has yet attempted another impossible feat, building a 30-story tall hotel prototype in 360 hours, after building a 15-story building in a week earlier in 2011.
You may ask why in a hurry, and is it safe? The statistics in the video can put you in good faith. Prefabricated modular buildings has many advantages over conventional buildings.
Higher precision in fabrication (+/- 0.2mm).
More coordinated on-site construction management.
Shorter construction time span.
Lower construction waste.
Also many other health and energy features are included in Broad Sustainable Buildings (BSB)
The building was built over last Christmas time and finished before New Years Eve of 2012.
An Introduction to BROAD SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CO., LTD Jan.11, 2012
Established in March, 2009, BROAD SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CO., LTD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BROAD Group, solely operates the magnitude-9 earthquake resistant, 5x more energy efficient, 20x purer air, 90% factory-built, and 1% construction waste Broad Sustainable Buildings (BSB).
BSB headquarter and its R&D Center are situated in the Xiangyin County of Hunan Province in Southern China, with 80,000sqm workshops, 900 employees in 2011. In 2012 with 220,000sqm workshops, 12,000 employees, and in 2013 with 360,000sqm workshops and 19,000 employees, reaching an annual production and installation capacity of 10 million sqms. BSB’s central goal is:
1. Improving R&D of BSB technologies, setting up supply chains
2. Sell BSBs in compliance with local regulations in the Hunan building market.
3. Transfer BSB technology to 100 partnership enterprise, every Chinese province and distributed evenly in each nation worldwide.
By December, 2011, BSB technology reached finalization, altogether with 12 BSBs built in Changsha, Xiangyin, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Mexico and developed 2 franchise partners in Ningxia and Fujian with identical factory sizes to the Xiangyin BSB Factory. Another 10 Chinese & international potential partners are in negotiation.
BROAD envisions in the near future, there will be one BSB among three buildings worldwide, allowing all men and women to share BSB’s solace. Proving that by responsible use of technology, earth’s environment and human living can be elevated simultaneously.
Lin Gang Industrial Zone, Xiangyin County, Hunan Tel: 86-731-84086266 Email: bsbs@broad.net www.broad.com/bsb
On 4 February 2012, the media organizations of the War Party unanimously announced more than 200 deaths in Homs – a city “bleeding” -, the torture of children and “relentless” bombing. We are supposed to be witnessing the “most terrifying massacre” since the beginning of the “revolt“. Spontaneously, attacks were triggered during the night against the Syrian embassies in Washington, Cairo, Kuwait and London.
Press TV: Joshua Blakeney, this all options on the table is something again perhaps, maybe because of a reelection year for Obama maybe its a signal and some say for the Israeli lobby at the same time the great length that the United States is going to get sanctions on Iran.
